Is your firm working on a must-win proposal? Lincoln Strategies can help. We provide federal government proposal support–for individual sections or the entire effort:
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Capture strategy.
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Teaming.
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Win themes, “best value” arguments.
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Pricing strategy.
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Proposal chapters.
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Red Team.
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Preparation for orals.
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BAFO/LAFO.
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Negotiations.
Our Approach
Lincoln Strategies provides hands-on proposal support. We will work with you to determine the appropriate level of support. For example, Lincoln Strategies can provide:
- A few hours of consulting support to help in the planning phase, or to help untangle a complex chapter that seems to be adrift.
- A moderate amount of support in specific phases of the proposal. For example, Lincoln Strategies often is called on to write a particular chapter, or to provide Red Team support.
- Full life-cycle support. Lincoln Strategies can manage the entire proposal effort for you and, working closely with your team, can take the lead in writing the entire document.
Depending on the nature of the procurement you are pursuing and the types of assistance you require, Lincoln Strategies can help you in each key phase of a competitive federal procurement.
Go/No-Go decision. Lincoln Strategies can provide incisive, frank appraisals of your competitive position, and can help you make a reasoned “Go/No-Go” decision. Has your firm done sufficient relationship-building ahead of time? How good is your firm’s technical fit? Do you have sufficiently relevant and strong “Past Performance?” What is the likelihood of being able to attract the right team members? What is the competitive landscape, and how does your firm stack up? What kinds of pricing targets will have to be met, and are they within your reach?
Prime or sub? Lincoln Strategies can help you decide whether your best approach to a particular opportunity would be as a prime contractor or as a subcontractor team member.
Teaming. Many proposals are won or lost before the solicitation hits the street. The key issue: which prime contenders have built the best teams? Lincoln Strategies can help you define your teaming requirements, pursue critically important firms, and negotiate teaming agreements.
Win themes. In intensive federal competitions, proposals that score the best have one common attribute: they have a consistent, laser-like focus on 3 or 4 win themes. Superior proposal writers articulate these themes at the beginning (cover letter; Executive Summary); and consistently convey them throughout the proposal. Lincoln Strategies will help identify your firm’s win themes. We will work with you to ensure that these themes are carried through each chapter of the proposal. We will help you weed out any material in the proposal that inadvertently contradicts these themes, misstates them, or might over-complicate them.
Proposal outline. Lincoln Strategies will help you develop a detailed proposal outline, to guide the preparation of individual chapters. Outlining can be hard—tedious, even. Under the severe time constraints associated with a typical federal proposal, it can be tempting to start writing immediately, without the benefit of an outline. This often leads to individual chapters that do not resonate well and even contradict each other; and this approach almost always sacrifices any hope of conveying consistent win themes. Members of federal evaluation panels have an uncanny ability to identify inconsistencies. Don’t let your proposal be a compendium of individual pieces; make sure that it is a coherent, consistent document that conveys the same themes on page 100 that it does on page 50 and page 1.
Write chapters. Lincoln Strategies can write individual chapters of the proposal—or the entire document.
Editing. Lincoln Strategies can provide real-time editorial services. This can greatly increase the efficiency of the proposal effort.
Red Team. Lincoln Strategies excels at planning, managing, and implementing the Red Team process. Whether for individual chapters or the proposal as a whole, Lincoln Strategies can look at a draft proposal from an objective perspective to identify areas for improvement. Does the draft proposal consistently convey your firm’s win themes? When the Evaluation Panel reads the proposal, will it be abundantly clear why your firm should be chosen? What can be done to improve the readability, editorial consistency, and thematic consistency of the proposal?
Orals. Lincoln Strategies can help your firm prepare for a stellar oral presentation. We can help plan and outline the presentation; produce high-quality presentation materials; coach the presenters; and hold full-blown rehearsals.
BAFO/LAFO. Lincoln Strategies can help you interpret the technical and pricing feedback you receive and can help you formulate strategically smart responses to BAFO or LAFO interrogatories and other requests.
Negotiations. Lincoln Strategies can help you formulate your negotiating strategy and, as requested, can participate directly in these sessions.
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